MANKATO \u2014 Mental health is at the forefront of two local weekend events held in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether for Mental Health\u201d will be held from 2-5 p.m. Saturday at Sibley Park in Mankato.<\/p>\n
Co-organizer Taylor Wester said the event goal is to gather the community around mental health, bring normalcy to those conversations and inform people about local providers and services.<\/p>\n
There will be 21 tables, staffed by area mental health providers. Wester said she expects as many as 200 people to attend the first-time event.<\/p>\n
Mental health-themed activities will include music from KMSU, food trucks, a raffle and chalk mural. The event is free and open to the public, though food truck tickets are $15.<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s organizers are Wester, a therapist with Mending Roots, and Taryn Surdy, who is a therapist with Surdy Family Services. The two came together to plan and host \u201cTogether for Mental Health\u201d as a way to help educate the community.<\/p>\n
Building bridges between providers and the community is important too, Wester said.<\/p>\n
Mental illness is \u201cnot something we need to avoid or be afraid of,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something we need to be embarrassed of. And there\u2019s more resources and supports out there than people realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though societal awareness about mental illness is improving, there are still misconceptions, she said. The biggest one is that \u201cyou\u2019re crazy or broken in some way. And that people aren\u2019t going to be accepting, or it means you have to struggle your whole life. No matter the severity or intensity, we can make improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second mental health event is scheduled from 1-4 p.m. Sunday at Erlandson Park in Mankato. Organizer Cindy Salsbery expects around 15 to attend and said it\u2019s an important gathering.<\/p>\n
Called \u201cA Mental Health Gathering,\u201d the first-time event is hosted by NAMI SE MN and Second Step Clubhouse. Attendees are urged to bring signs related to mental health.<\/p>\n
Those gathered will hear from a NAMI Minnesota board member and then group together along Victory Drive and Main Street with their signs.<\/p>\n
Salsbery said she wants to inform people about what having a mental illness is really like.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can live with it and have a decent, happy life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt can be dealt with. It\u2019s not always curable but it can be managed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANKATO \u2014 Mental health is at the forefront of two local weekend events held in conjunction with Mental…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[36],"tags":[7674,2454,7931,210,7668,517,7673,1737,9159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-792560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-clinical-medicine","tag-cognition","tag-disability","tag-health","tag-human-diseases-and-disorders","tag-mental-health","tag-psychological-concepts","tag-psychology","tag-social-issues","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116565207472954717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}